Torchwood Five, Belfast
by AlfieTimewolf
Summary: As the title says, the branch of Torchwood in Belfast. This is almost completely an original story. Flirting is guaranteed, Aliens are a must, Saving people is in the job description, and the weather? Be sure to bring an umbrella.
1. Pilot

**Disclaimer **I don't own Torchwood, or Retcon, or Belfast, or Stormont Parliament Building. I do however own all of my OCs, and the aliens I create.

**Author's Note **Torchwood One was London, Two in Glasgow, Three in Cardiff and Four went missing. I thought to myself 'Northern Ireland should have a branch of Torchwood in it', which is how this came about.

**A/N PS. **The original beginning of this chapter bothered me, more than I thought it would have. So now I've edited it. Enjoy.

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**Torchwood**

**Chapter One: Pilot**

Torchwood Five was established in Belfast in 1912, following the devastating sinking of the RMS Titanic. Members of T5 – fifteen at the time – were forced to move around all of Northern Ireland for the next twenty years, searching for the right place. The team had changed a lot by that time.

Then, in 1932, the Parliament Building was built at Stormont. It was the perfect place to build Torchwood Five's headquarters, and in 1935 T5's headquarter was built beneath the Stormont building.

***T*O*R*C*H*W*O*O*D***

_2012_

Of all the things Belfast was known for, its 'fantastic' weather wasn't one of them.

A fact Siobhan Fletcher was well aware of, as she was currently walking up the steps to the Stormont Parliament Building in the rain. Her normally thick, curly brown hair was flattened to the top of her head and back of her neck.

Siobhan was the current Director of Torchwood Five, the branch of Torchwood located in Belfast, Northern Ireland. As she was the Director, Siobhan used the entrance to the hub that was inside the Parliament Building.

After flashing the guard at the door her security badge, she headed straight through the foyer and up the stairs to the left. At the end was a white door, beside which on the wall was a keypad – a code was needed to enter.

Before Siobhan reached the door, her phone began vibrating in the left inside pocket of her suit jacket. She paused at the door and lifted out the communication device, and without looking at the caller ID, flicked it open, "Hello."

"Oh, Director, good morning." A female voice greeted, the accent was softer than the average Northern Irish twang.

"Morning, Detective," Siobhan replied curtly. "I'm on my way down now. What's wrong?"

"Oh… Uh, the boss hasn't showed up yet," the Detective conveyed, a hint of worry in her voice. "That and I also need duct tape."

"Is that everything?"

"Yep, pretty much," the Detective said, her voice became faint as she moved the phone away from her mouth. "Daniel! No, no, no! Stop! Stop!"

"What?!" A voice squeaked in panic.

"The Boost! Watch! The tops off!" the Detective shouted back. There was a crash as something was knocked over, followed by the zapping cracks of electricity.

"I didn't- I mean I-"

"Don't move," the Detective's voice was brought back into focus. "Sorry, Director. Duty calls."

"I can't understand why you drink that vile stuff." Siobhan sighed, preferring to focus more on what her Archivist was drinking rather than the mess that indubitably been made. Boost was a carbonated energy drink. Daniel O'Connell, the team's electronic specialist, was a little... clumsy.

Siobhan knew every member of Torchwood Five, even a little personally – after all, she had been the one to sought them out and recruit them. There were only five members of T5, they weren't hard to forget.

The door needed a 5-digit access code to open, which Siobhan knew of course, 71523. The lock opened after she'd punched in the numbers and the door opened smoothly by itself, as it closed the lock reset itself. Across the small, unfurnished white room was an elevator. The two grey doors were well polished, so shiny in fact that they could have been used as mirrors.

Siobhan walked over and pushed the call button, shortly after which the doors slid open soundlessly and she stepped in. There was only one destination the lift could go to from there, and that was downstairs. After pushing in the red button marked 'T5', the doors closed and the elevator began making its descent.

The Detective Siobhan had answered the phone to had been Katherine Cairns, a Detective Inspector turned Torchwood agent – her job was to deal with extra-terrestrial artefacts they came in contact with and archive them appropriately.

Katherine had mentioned her boss, referring to Special Agent Sarah Kray – the leader of T5. Sarah had been brought over to Northern Ireland to be the team leader of Torchwood Five three years before the 'Battle of Canary Wharf'.

The elevator stopped and Siobhan stepped out, standing in her way now was an iron-barred gate and behind that two thick copper-coloured doors – made from melted and reshaped Dalekanium. As soon as she stepped out of the lift however, the iron gate rose and the doors slid open – revealing the inside of Torchwood Five's headquarters.

There were five levels to the base; level two was the most used level and the one Siobhan was standing in now, it was where everyone's desks were and where they were most likely to be found. Level one was just a flight of metal stairs up, where the team's meeting room and Sarah's office was. Level three was separated into four corridors of twenty-eight holding cells, for rogue aliens who need time to 'cool-down'. Level four was the morgue. Level five was the basement and storage area (AKA the Archives Room).

"Kat! Where'd you chuck that Akivakian Bonding Ruler?" was the first thing Siobhan heard as she walked in, it was a man's voice with a very Northern Irish accent.

"If you took your visor off, you daft bastard, you'd see it was lying at your feet!" the Detective, Katherine's voice – a much lighter Northern Irish accent – shouted back.

"Aye, right… Cheers, I found it." The man muttered. This was former Brigadier Shaun McCoy, also a native to Belfast – just as Katherine and Siobhan were. He'd left the army to join Torchwood.

Level two of the base had two platforms, separated by two sets of five steps – the lower platform had a medical bay on the far side, Shaun's mechanical tinkering room, and beside that the kitchen. The upper platform housed the team's four desks.

The desk closest to the Medical bay was being used by a 5'9" woman in her late 20s with short raven black hair and striking steel blue eyes – this was Katherine Cairns.

The desk directly behind her was occupied by a dark blond and black haired young man with moss brown eyes; he was twitching a little – Daniel O'Connell, from Ireland. He was unique, more than the average Torchwood agent was. He was half-alien, from his father's side. His father had been an Elcitikz from the planet Recnac Zeta – the inhabitants of Recnac Zeta looked like humans, but they could absorb electricity, and were very good with technology.

The desk closest to the entrance was being used by a petite Indian woman in her early 30s, with dark brown hair and warm chocolate brown eyes. Doctor Naina Cowell, Torchwood Five's medical examiner.

The desk beside Daniel was unoccupied; Shaun was in his tinkering room taking apart a Judoon blaster to see how it worked.

Each desk had two keyboards, three monitors, four speakers and a wireless mouse. They also got computer chairs with wheels, and room to personalise their stations.

"What's all this about Sarah not showing up?" Siobhan asked, loud enough for everyone to hear her. Torchwood Five agents started work at a quarter past eight; it was now seven minutes to eleven.

"Director, duct tape?" Katherine questioned with a curious smile, for a Detective Inspector she was rather cheery. She became serious quickly at the un-amused look on the Director's face, however. "Special Agent Fletcher is over two and a half hours late and hasn't been in contact since yesterday afternoon."

"And this is unusual for her?" Siobhan asked, she didn't know Sarah – she hadn't been the one to hire her. Katherine and Naina nodded their heads at the question. "I see."

"Ma'am, if you don't mind me asking, what are you visiting us for?" Naina queered softly.

"I have some… Business to discuss with Sarah." Siobhan replied calmly, she wasn't too happy with how the T5 leader had been handling her job over the past few weeks.

"You can wait in her office, Ma'am. I'll bring you up a cuppa." Katherine offered, and Siobhan nodded her head before turning and climbing the metal steps up to Sarah's office.

As Siobhan was half way up the steps, the back entrance (which looked exactly like the front entrance, but led to a secret car park) opened and a light haired woman in her late 30s, wearing a business suit strode in fixing the collar of her shirt.

"My tires were slashed last night," the woman explained her lateness; her London accent was clear and held an unquestioning authority to it. "Had to get a bus up."

"Sarah, glad you could join us," Siobhan greeted, the woman froze as her name was said. "We have some business to attend to. Your office. Now."

Special Agent Sarah Fletcher looked up at her Detective and Doctor, who had both turned back to their computers and were working away. She quickly followed her own boss up to her office, where she closed the door firmly after them.

"Jesus, I wonder what all that's about." Shaun finally emerged out of his tinkering room, wiping his hands on a red rag; he stopped in front of Naina's desk and watched his boss and his boss' boss talking through the glass. Shaun was in his late 30s and handsome, standing at 5'11" with short brown hair and greenish brown eyes.

"Whatever the reason, it isn't good," Katherine answered for him, stepping down onto the lower platform and heading towards the kitchen to make the tea. "The Director only comes down for the important things."

"Uh… Guys, I'm getting a police report of someone spotting Jekylls destroying their car," Daniel sheepishly interrupted his fellow team members as he nervously rang his fingers with his other hand. "They're at the multi-storey car park at Connswater."

Jekylls were rat-like humanoids; with scrawny tails, limp whiskers, satellite ears and teeth so sharp they could gnaw through anything. Much like Cardiff's Weevils, Jekylls lived in the sewers. They loved the bad weather Belfast provided, food is vulnerable in the rain to them.

"Who has the keys to the car?" Naina asked as she grabbed her high security clearance pass and gingerly holstered her gun to her right hip.

"I do, I'll get them in a jiffy," Katherine piped up, stepping out of the kitchen carrying two steaming cups of tea on matching saucers. Shaun grabbed his own pass and stuffed his gun down the back of his black jeans before following her and slipping his hand into her front jeans pocket, fishing out the car keys. "Oi! That's harassment."

"That's getting what I want, love." Shaun grinned as he and Naina made their way towards the back entrance, the one that led to the car park.

"I feel so used…" Katherine sighed dramatically with a playful grin as she reached Sarah's office door. "I'll be with youse in a tick."

Katherine knocked the bottom of the door with the white tip of her blue All-Star Converse, a few seconds later the boss herself opened the door looking un-amused.

"Yes, Detective?" Sarah asked testily, being formal in front of the head of Torchwood Five.

"I've got your tea," Katherine held the two cups up, to which Sarah took them off her. "We're heading out to contain a pack of Jekylls."

"On your way, Detective." Sarah nodded her head before slamming the door shut using her elbow.

"Right you are, boss," Katherine muttered to herself with a roll of her eyes as she descended the stairs and grabbed her pass, gun – placed into its holster on her right hip – and Communications link (or Comms. for short), hooking it around her left ear. She turned and watched Daniel's computer screen over his shoulder, it was a CCTV camera placed at the very top of the multi-storey car park. Four Jekylls were sniffing around a dark orange 4x4, scratching at the doors to see whether it was worth destroying or not. "Keep us posted."

"Of course," Daniel nodded his head as he handed her two more Comms. "They forgot them."

"I'll let them know," Katherine smiled and patted him gently on the shoulder before exiting through the back entrance, which led her down a concrete slope and up a flight of stairs, through another door disguised as an electric advertising board for 'Unlimited Sky Broadband'. The car was a black armoured Range Rover with tinted windows, the rear seats had been moved backwards to fit in tracking equipment and more computers. Shaun was sitting in the passenger's seat surprisingly, while Naina sat in the back typing away into one of the computers. Katherine opened the driver's side door and climbed in, slamming the door behind her. "Youse forgot your Comms."

"Oops," Shaun shrugged his shoulders and traded the keys to the car for his Comms link. "Cheers."

"Thank you." Naina said as she took the Comms link and put it on.

***T*O*R*C*H*W*O*O*D***

Twenty minutes later found the team at Connswater; the rain was coming down furiously outside of the car, flooding everywhere with great lake-like puddles. Katherine was parking the car in the small car park just beside the multi-storey one.

"We take a level each and work our way up to the top," Shaun instructed, taking a special can of spray offered to him by Naina, along with a bag of chain collars. Naina had the same equipment, so did Katherine after being handed the kit. "Kat, you're taking the bottom. Naina, the first level. I'll take level two."

"If you find any stray Jekylls, chain them together and bring them out to the car," Katherine continued (ignoring Shaun's nickname), taking the keys out of the engine and climbing out of the car, followed by her teammates. She pointed to a grey lamppost in front of the car, pulling the hood of her jacket up over her head as she did so. "We'll chain them to that, then call in the boss to bring down the van."

"I don't think we should interrupt the boss," Naina spoke up as she loaded her gun. "The Director doesn't come down just to chat."

"Hmm, Daniel will have to come down…" Shaun thought aloud, before grinning. "Let's get mouse trapping."

Katherine rolled he eyes before grabbing her kit off of her seat and closing the car door, locking the vehicle before heading down to level zero, Jekyll spray in one hand, gun in the other.

Shaun and Naina walked up the sloped road to level one, water streaming past their feet as the rain continued to fall. They split as they entered the first storey, Shaun continuing up to the next level.

Naina was relieved to get out of the rain, she was thankful she'd put on her waterproof jacket before she'd left her flat. Her hair, neatly tied back into a ponytail, was dripping droplets down the back of her neck.

Besides the sound of the bucketing rain and her footsteps, the car park level was quiet and freezing. There were only three cars abandoned randomly about the place. Naina reached up and turned on her Comms link, connecting her to her team members, "Level one is clear."

"That's great, come on up," Shaun invited over the Comms. "Kat, how you doin' down there?"

There was no response.

"Kat?" Shaun tried again, no answer. "Detective, are you there?"

"I'm fine-" Kat had finally replied, before she was cut off. Shaun and Naina waited tensely to see what would happen next. "There's a small nest down here, only four of them – I'm fine."

"Had me worried there for a second," Shaun chuckled over the Comms. "Come up when you're done."

"Will do," Katherine answered. "Over and out."

Shaun turned off his Comms. link, level two was also clear, just level three and the top car park were left. He turned at the sound of footsteps to see Naina approaching him, the small bag full of chain collars and the Jekyll spray attached to her belt, opposite her holstered gun.

"All good?" Shaun asked as she stopped beside him.

"I haven't seen any Jekyll yet." Naina responded.

"Right. Kat can catch up." Shaun replied, Naina nodded her head and followed him up to the next level; there was a rusted bicycle and a dented blue ford – but no Jekylls. Shaun reconnected his Comms link. "Kat, we're heading up to the top – coming?"

"Tell you what, it's pelting down out here," Katherine replied with a growl of frustration at the end, the sound of a lock clicking shut was heard and a sigh of relief followed. "On my way up now."

"Don't faff about." Shaun warned before turning off his Comms link, severing the connection between them.

Shaun led the way, Naina following up. When they reached the top they crouched at the wall to the entrance/exit, Shaun stood and peeked over the concrete wall – there were seven of them now.

"There are seven of them, two are off to the side a bit – they must be the leaders," Shaun said as he crouched back down. "If we can get those two, the other five might be a bit less likely to attack."

This was when Katherine showed up, panting after having just quickly jogged from their car all the way up to the top – she held a finger up, signalling for them to let her catch her breath.

"When you're ready," Shaun smirked and faced ahead of them, they were out in rain again. "Girls, get the Jekylls on the Four-by-Four, I'm going after the head pair." When Shaun gave the okay to go, the three sprang into action.

Katherine was too quick for the two that went for her first, having them sprayed and collared together in moments. She got distracted by Naina giving a hiss of pain as one of the two Jekylls she was facing scratched her just beneath her left eye, this gave the final Jekyll Katherine had been trying to get the opportunity to sink its teeth into her forearm and shake its head.

After a further six or so minutes, all seven Jekylls were subdued and collared, then led down and out to the others near the car.

The rain had only gotten heavier.

They all had minor injuries; Naina had the small cut beneath her left eye, the deep bite mark in Katherine's right forearm, and Shaun had a brilliantly bruised eye and a busted lip.

"So," Katherine spoke as Naina disinfected and dressed the wound on her forearm, after seeing to herself of course. "Who's calling the boss?" Shaun turned his Comms. link on, "Daniel, is the Director still there?"

"Y-yeah." They all heard him reply.

"Danny, we need you to bring down the van then," Katherine spoke through her own earpiece. "Think you can do that?"

There was a thoughtful pause before, "Okay… I'll be there in ten minutes."

"Good lad." Shaun praised before disconnecting the link.

Nine minutes and fifty-three seconds later, Daniel shakily pulled up in their van. It was black, with no markings, and bulletproof. Daniel climbed out and opened the back up, pulling down the metal ramp and dropping in gently to the ground – his light green shirt quickly darkened in the bad weather.

Katherine and Shaun escorted the Jekyll into the back of the dry van and slid the ramp back in before slamming the doors shut, making sure they were secure. Katherine threw Shaun over the car keys as he headed in the direction of the armoured vehicle with Naina and Katherine climbed into the driver's seat of the van followed by Daniel hopping into the passenger's side.

"That didn't take too long," Katherine smiled as she restarted the engine after shaking out her short wet hair; she checked the leather strapped wrist-watch on her left wrist. "It's only half Twelve."

After Daniel turned the radio on to Cool FM, Katherine pushed down the hand-break and started driving – Shaun and Naina following behind them.

***T*O*R*C*H*W*O*O*D***

The Torchwood Five team came in through the back; Naina had two Jekylls, as did Katherine, and Shaun had three – Daniel wasn't confident enough to handle the strong creatures.

"Do you have any idea how much paperwork just two Jekyll cause? Never mind seven," Katherine rolled her eyes as they walked through the back entrance into the hub, Daniel jumped up to his computer as soon as the Dalekanium doors slid open. "It's a nightmare-"

"You can't do this to me!" Sarah screamed angrily, interrupting Katherine as she stormed out of her office in a demonic fury, throwing her jacket on as she stomped down the metal stairs. "I've worked my ass off for this institute! You can't just fire me like that!"

"I believe I just did." Siobhan replied calmly as she appeared out of Sarah's (old) office and leaned against the metal railing just after it, looking down at the returned team watching the situation unfold before their eyes before back to the ex-Torchwood agent.

"You're not going to Retcon me! I'm not drinking or eating anything!" with that said, Sarah stormed out of Torchwood Five, home to her flat probably.

"Poor thing, she forgot about the tea she drank earlier." Siobhan said with a tsk, before turning and going to walk back into the now unoccupied office.

"Wait!" Shaun called, which stopped the Director. "What do we do now? With no boss?"

"You were doing fine with her not doing anything, you'll manage with her not here at all," Siobhan assured her employees, giving them a small smile. "You'll have to, until I can find you a new leader."

With that said, Siobhan walked into the office to collect her things, leaving the team to look at each other with raised eyebrows – this was a turn of events.

"Come on," Katherine spoke first, a little unsure. "We better get these Jekyll down stairs."

Katherine took the lead, down to level three. Shaun, after a moment, followed her down and Naina behind him. All of them in a stunned silence, it was just them now, for the meantime…

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**As the title suggests, this is only the pilot chapter.**

**Also, as this is based in Belfast (Northern Ireland), you may or may not need to open another web page to look up some words and phrases I'll be using - It's easy to use the words and phrases for me because I'm a native Northern Irish resident.**

**Review please, tell me what you think!**

**It might help you readers if I list who I'd like to play who, which is what I've been pondering over. I'll only be doing it the once though.**

**Director Siobhan Fletcher - Amanda Burton  
Ex-Special Agent Sarah Kray - Tara Fitzgerald  
Brigadier Shaun McCoy - Ciarán McMenamin  
Detective Inspector Katherine Cairns - Emily Blunt  
Doctor Naina Cowell - Ayesha Dharker  
Daniel O'Connell - Damien Molony**


	2. The Darwin Era

**Disclaimer **I don't own Torchwood, or the Weevils. I may live in Belfast, but that doesn't mean I own it either. I also don't own Stormont Parliament Building. I may hold most of the rights to Torchwood 5, and all the rights to my OCs, including the hub. And Jekylls. And any other aliens I come up with and write in.

**Author's Note** I'm writing this fanfiction mainly for myself, and if other people like it, then it's a bonus. Thank you to Torchwood Cardiff for reviewing the pilot chapter.

**Edit **Yep, this chapter has been edited. And edited. And edited... And edited...

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**Chapter Two: The Darwin Era**

In the winter of 1939, the headquarters of Torchwood Five had an infestation of centipede-like mice, from the planet Klayphin Minor. The centipede-mice, referred to as 'Slates', were roughly the size of a Jack Russell dog when fully grown - they enjoyed the heat in the base.

It wasn't until March of the following year that the final Slate was caught and caged, ready with the others to be thrown back through the Anomaly.

***T*O*R*C*H*W*O*O*D***

_2012_

Two weeks, two weeks and a few days really, was how long the team of Torchwood Five had been without an official team leader so far.

Shaun and Katherine shared the position, switching every other day between one another, and Naina & Daniel were comfortable with the arrangement - however, neither of them would use the office meant for the team leader.

The past two days had been mind numbingly uneventful, which to anyone else would have been a blessing - the first free day had been. The second mundane day was just slightly suspicious. The third day seemed to be turning out the same, it _was_ only 10:13am though - early days yet.

"Shaun?" Daniel asked, but the ex-Brigadier was welding and couldn't hear him. The half-human rang his fingers unsurely before stepping down away from his desk and towards the Medical bay, where the local doctor was biopsying the body of a fully grown male Jekyll. "Naina, have you seen my yo-yo?"

"I'm a little busy at the minute," Naina held up her blue bloodied gloves to emphasise the point. "Ask Shaun."

"He's welding."

"Then go ask Katherine, she knows where everything in this place is," Naina replied, look back down as she removed the Jekyll's enlarged stomach. "Usually..."

"Right, thanks." Daniel turned and made his way passed a curiously bubbling water cooler, which was beside a door that led to stairs, which then went all the way down the very base of the Hub.

It was silent, besides the soft scared footsteps of Daniel's red Converse on the concrete steps. He didn't go down to the basement very often, in fact he made a habit of avoiding doing so - unless being accompanied by someone else.

The archive section of the basement was where Katherine worked. Before she'd been hired, the archives hadn't existed. Folders, files and paper were just strewn everywhere, amongst which were several dozen non-terrestrial items.

As Daniel got closer to the warmly lit archives, he could hear somebody whistling. It was a recent tune, something that had been playing on the radio quite a bit.

"... But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough," Daniel heard Katherine sigh as he gently (silently) pushed open the metal-rimmed wooden blue door, only to come face-to-face with row upon row of shelves full of files and boxes. "No you didn't have to stoop so low! Have your friends collect your records and then change your number!"

Daniel peeked around the end of the shelves he'd walked down, there was a desk pushed into the corner covered in papers and a red laptop. Where there was space to spare, a medium sized circular table was also placed, decorated with ajarred books and cracked open files. Pressed against the wall was a small dark brown two-seater sofa, a folded orange blanket and white pillow lay on one seat cushion. Katherine was nowhere to be seen, but she'd began whistling again.

"Katherine?" Daniel called unsurely, out of all the members of Torchwood Five, he felt closer to Katherine - the friendly Torchwood Archivist.

The whistling stopped and Katherine walked out from behind a row that was longer than the first three rows, her head turned and she raised a curious eyebrow - she knew how much Daniel disliked wandering down to the basement by himself.

"What about ye?" She asked curiously, her arms overloaded with files and folders. "No cuppa?" - she cracked a grin - "To ask a question to the all-knowing Kath the Archivist, an offering of a cup of tea must be made."

"Oh..." Daniel stepped out from the shelter of the aisles and into the open; he didn't see her teasing smile as she dropped the papers in her arms onto the already messy table.

Katherine reached into her front jeans pocket and pulled out her _iPhone_, she unlocked the screen and clicked on Shaun's number, "Hey, Brig, two cups of tea and a jammy dodger - quick as you can, we'll be up in a few."

"And if I refuse?" Shaun rebelled, being put onto loudspeaker. He always kept his phone in his pocket whenever he was welding; it sat on the worktop whenever he was tinkering.

"Then you can forget about me finding that Multi-Quantum Linguistic Transcriber." Katherine set the phone onto the unsteady pile of files.

Multi-Quantum Linguistic Transcriber is just the very technical term for a language translator, this device was able to translate almost any language into the desired speech, even alien dialect - it was an extra-terrestrial gizmo after all.

"Two teas and a jammy dodger, right?" Shaun checked after a thoughtful moment of silence, if he wanted that MQLT he needed to kiss up to the Archivist.

"Good boy," Katherine grinned before tapping the 'end' button before turning to Daniel with her hands on her hips. "Now, what'd you come down for?"

"My yo-yo," Daniel replied as his eyes scanned over the folders on the shelf beside him, he only glanced before looking back at Katherine. "The blue and white one."

"Ah, that one. It's up in the meeting room, you left it there yesterday," Katherine informed him, before she got an idea and rang Shaun back. "We're coming up now, get that brew going."

Katherine slipped the phone back into her front pocket before disappearing behind the centuries worth of history filled shelves, the sound of rustling paper and dropped boxes carried on for at least five minutes - reappearing with a small black cube, it fit perfectly into the palm of her hand.

"What's that?" Daniel asked curiously, he'd never seen such a piece of technology before.

"The MQLT, what Shaun's been asking me more," Katherine replied as she shrugged on her black waistcoat over her white short-sleeved t-shirt that read 'Don't Shoot!' around a red bull's-eye placed on her chest-area. She dropped the square into her waistcoat pocket before scooping up a pile of files and heading towards the door. "Come on."

Not wanting to be left behind, Daniel stayed close to the Archivist after she'd turned the light out, her blue and white All-Star Converse landed silently on the cold concrete ground.

A sigh of relief escaped Daniel as they reached the second level of Torchwood Five; just as Katherine dumped her files on her desk and Daniel went to retrieve his yo-yo, Shaun walked out of the kitchen carrying two cups of tea - in his left hand was a powder blue mug with a cartoon Dalmatian on it named 'Lucky', in his other hand was a black and green mug with a circuit board design.

"Here youse are." Shaun announced as he handed the mugs out to their respected owners.

"Cheers," Katherine smiled as she took the blue mug before dipping her hand into her waistcoat pocket, pulling out the small black cube and handing it to the ex-Brigadier. "There you are."

"What in the name of God is _that_?" Shaun asked with furrowed eyebrows, clearly confused.

"It's what you asked me for," Katherine grinned as she took a sip of her hot tea before setting it up on her desk then returning to Shaun, she'd had a feeling it wasn't what he'd been expecting. "That there is the Multi-Quantum Linguistic Transcriber."

"You're shitting me..." Shaun muttered as Daniel took his own tea and took a drink; the armoury expert rolled the cube around in his hands.

"'Fraid not, look," Katherine took the cube and showed him a circular button on one side, she clicked it in and the cracks in the square glowed silver as it unfolded itself into a flat rectangle with a touch screen, when it was done the glowing faded away to nothing. "See?"

"Ah... I see," Shaun agreed as he took the device from her and fiddle about with it a moment. "Wow. This thing is cracker."

"You're welcome. There's blue prints for it if you-" Katherine was interrupted by the front entrance to the hub opening.

"Siobhan's back?" Naina asked in surprise as she made her way up from the autopsy she'd finished, scrubs and gloves gone. "So soon?"

"I come bearing gifts," an unfamiliar voice offered as a stranger strolled into the base; he was tall, easy over 6ft, with short greying hair and stubble across his chin & cheeks. His eyes were blue, bright blue, an electric (almost glowing) blue. "Hello, I'm Professor Darwin. I'm your new boss."

***T*O*R*C*H*W*O*O*D***

_20 Minutes Before_

"Now, they may seem a little sceptical at first, but don't worry about that," Siobhan advised Professor Arthur Darwin as they walked up the steps to the front of the Stormont Parliament Building. "This is the only time you'll use the front entrance, employees use the back way."

Siobhan flashed the guard her pass and they both walked through the foyer, up the stairs to the left, and through the coded door to the elevator. She slid the brown canvas messenger bag she'd been carrying off of her shoulder and handed over to the Professor, who gingerly took the bag with a questioning look, as if he'd just been handed a bomb.

"What's this for?" Arthur asked, glancing at the bag unsurely.

"How do I explain this?" Siobhan thought for a moment before coming to a conclusion and looking up at the tall professor. "You know what a Jekyll is, yes?" - Arthur nodded his head, not sure what that had to do with anything - "Good. The Torchwood Five team is like a pack of Jekylls."

"Hungry and destructive?" Arthur guessed nervously, peeking inside the bag.

"Close and cautious of outsiders," Siobhan corrected the professor, the two important things to remember when dealing with a pack of Jekylls. "Acceptance needs to be earned."

"What are these for then?" Arthur asked after closing and securing the flap of the bag.

"Offerings help speed up the acceptance, a week should do it," Siobhan decided as she called up the lift. "Good luck."

"Thanks..." Arthur gulped as he stepped into the elevator; the Director's face disappeared from his view as the doors closed behind him.

Arthur Darwin, a professor of Archaeology and Astronomy. He worked as a specialist for UNIT before being offered the job as the new leader of the team at Torchwood Five. He'd come dressed in a grey suit, with a darker grey waistcoat, white shirt, plain black tie and black leather shoes. In his left hand was a dull brown briefcase; over his right shoulder was the messenger bag.

When the elevator slowed to a stop and the doors slid open, Arthur took a deep breath as he studied the impressive iron gate and interesting copper-plated doors. He wondered how he would get through them, having been giving no pass or code, but was surprised when both lines of defence lifted and separated as he stepped out of the lift. He would need to research the security further.

"Siobhan's back?" Arthur heard a female voice ask. "So soon?"

"I come bearing gifts," Arthur offered as he strolled in with the messenger bag held out in front of him and the doors closed behind him, he spotted four people - two men and two women. "Hello, I'm Professor Darwin. I'm your new boss."

The team stood in a stunned silence, just staring at him.

Arthur already knew who they were as he'd read their files; Doctor Naina Cowell, medical examiner. Brigadier Shaun McCoy, weapons specialist - both terrestrial and non-terrestrial. Detective Inspector Katherine Cairns, the Archivist. Daniel O'Connell, the half-human technology expert. These four people were the heart and soul of Torchwood Five.

"What's in the bag?" Katherine asked suspiciously.

"I was given these to bring down to you." Arthur stepped onto the upper platform and set the bag upon Shaun's neglected desk; he flipped the top open and handed out the contents.

A bundle of six case folders bound with a rubber band were handed over to Naina, her name had been written on a post-it note and stuck to the top folder - each file containing the anatomy and physiologically of six different alien species.

Daniel was handed a Rubik's cube, it was unique from regular run of the mill Rubik's cubes however in that when the puzzle was completed, it was programmed to rearrange the squares to start over - Electric powered pattern scrambling device.

Katherine was handed a lined 400 page pad filler and a roll of duct tape. She was only an Archivist and needed nothing special.

Shaun was given a thin rectangular box that was air sealed, containing weapons from over twenty different species that had been shrank - when introduced to liquid nitrogen they would return to their original size.

"Meeting room?" Arthur asked his team, Naina pointed towards it. "Excellent, follow me."

Leaving the messenger bag where he'd dropped it on Shaun's desk, Arthur climbed the metal stairs up to level one, where he entered the meeting room and waited for his new team to follow.

***T*O*R*C*H*W*O*O*D***

The team glanced at one another as Arthur made his way up towards the meeting room and disappear inside; Daniel stepped down from the upper platform and away from his desk as the four gathered together.

"What're everyone's thoughts?" Katherine asked as she flicked through the pad filler, 400 double sided lined pages to fill; the duct tape roll was hanging around her right wrist.

"I'm not sure," Shaun muttered as he left the box he'd been given into his room before returning to the main room, he'd open it later. "We need to find out more about him."

"I agree." Naina nodded her head.

"Me too." Daniel agreed after a moment.

"Let's go find out then," Katherine replied as she set the pad filler and duct tape onto the pile of files she'd brought up with her before leading the way up to the meeting room. It was a large enough room with an oval table big enough to fit ten people in total around it - four chairs on each side plus another chair on either end of the table.

Shaun took the lead at the top of the stairs, entering the meeting room first and taking a seat at the head of the table, opposite to where their new team leader was standing. Naina and Daniel sat on his left, Katherine to his right.

"I believe a proper introduction is in order," Arthur clasped his hands together. "I am Professor Arthur Darwin, the new head of the team."

"Detective Inspector Katherine Cairns," she replied first, spinning her chair slightly to the right so as she was facing him full on as her arms crossed loosely across her abdomen. "Archivist."

"Bit of a step back, is it not?" the Professor asked with furrowed eyebrows, wondering why a detective would take on a job that involved sorting things into order day after day. He had only meant to ask of her opinion, not to be insulting.

"No," Katherine disagreed, narrowing her eyes towards her new boss. "It isn't. Not to me."

"Yes, rightio then." Arthur nodded, clearing his throat nervously under Katherine's stare.

"Shaun McCoy," he introduced himself next, turning his gaze away from the affronted Archivist towards the Professor. "Weaponry expert."

"Ah, yes. The Brigadier." Arthur smiled, a soldier would be very useful to have on the team.

"Ex-Brigadier," Shaun corrected as he sat further back into his chair. "Retired."

"A soldier's a soldier, Brigadier." Arthur remarked with an even wider smile, if that were possible.

"Doctor Naina Cowell," she spoke next as she looked up from the file on Abnarks she was reading. "The medical examiner."

Abnarks were like Earth Lobsters; except thirteen times bigger, and blue, and more horse-like, with green blood. Not to mention the fangs they have. And each of their six legs had three claws.

Actually, an Abnark was nothing like an Earth lobster. More like a dragon.

"Good," Arthur nodded his head in approval. "That's exactly what we need in this line of work, a doctor."

"I'm Daniel O'Connell, the-" he had started.

"The half-Elcitikz," Arthur grinned and studied the young man. "I say, you're nothing like I imagined."

"Thanks..." Daniel muttered. "But I'm the technology expert."

"Rightio. Now, I'm going to be the new permanent head of team five, if all goes to plan," Arthur clasped his hands together and smiled. "I'll be spending time with each of you, to get the gist of how each of you work."

"Is that everything, _boss_?" Katherine questioned, sarcasm dripping from the word boss.

"Yes, yes I should think so," Arthur confirmed, oblivious to her sarcasm - Katherine was up from her seat and out of the meeting room faster than a hungry cybermat after its next meal. Arthur frowned and looked towards his three remaining team members. "Was it something I said?"

"Kind of, yeah," Shaun was the one to tell him, Naina and Daniel left so as the ex-Brigadier could explain to the Englishman what he'd done wrong. "You called her job rubbish."

"What?" Arthur frowned, he couldn't remember uttering anything of the sort. "No I certainly did not."

"Not outright, no, but you _implied _it was," Shaun replied, now aware that his boss obviously hadn't meant it. "A good cuppa and an apology should do it - no promises. That's a _should,_ not a will."

***T*O*R*C*H*WO*O*D***

"Stupid twat," Katherine thundered as she collected the loose pieces of paper off the table and sat down at her desk, ready to sort them out. "Who does he think he is?"

The Detective had returned to the security of the Torchwood archives room, which sometimes doubled as her sleeping quarters, depending on how late it was when she decided she'd done enough work. That was the situation that had occurred last night - she had a small en suite bathroom down there, and always brought a change of clothes to work with her. She'd had Sarah build her a bathroom a few years ago after continuous late nights.

The loose pieces of paper were journal entries of the team from 1939, dating from January 1st to December 28th. Eleven team members, with roughly over two and a half hundred pages each. They weren't in order, or even in the correct folder, and it was up to Katherine to sort them all out. She was currently rearranging the year-worth of diary entries of a Mr Edgar Haddock, who had only been nineteen at the time.

When that particular year of Edgar's life had been arranged in the appropriate order, it was just a little past two in the afternoon. Having slept on her sofa from half eleven the night before to half six that morning, Katherine was still tired.

Flicking off the large lights placed along the roof all the way to the other side of the archives room (a good odd forty or forty-seven feet away), she left the small light on her desk lit, giving the cold grey part of the room she was at a soft warm glow. She rolled the orange blanket over the less than warm leather sofa and fixed the pillow before flopping down ungracefully onto her back with a moan of pleasure, she didn't bother taking her shoes off as they were propped up on the armrest at her feet.

Katherine had just started to doze off when there were four short raps on the door, she thought she'd imagined them at first and so went back to trying to sleep. There were four more raps upon the blue wood before the door was pushed open, a visitor with an offering of tea.

"Hello?" a male voice called, and Katherine groaned - it was the Professor. "Are you here?"

There was no answer, she rolled over onto her side and hid her face in the pillow. She didn't want to deal with him right now; all she wanted to do was doze for a few hours before she went back to her work.

"I came down here to apologise," the Professor continued as he stepped further into the room, feeling like he had just walked into the lion's den, willingly instead of being thrown. "I hadn't meant to offend you earlier, but I did, and I'm sorry."

Katherine sighed heavily as she cracked her eyes open, he had apologised and making an effort... she could sleep later.

"You're forgiven," she managed to say through a yawn as she stiffly sat up, this was when she spotted the blue mug (her mug) in his hands and the aroma of the steaming liquid fluttered up her nostrils. "Is that tea?"

"Oh, yes. It's for you," the Professor informed as he handed over the hot drink. "I was told it would help with the forgiving."

"Shaun knows me too well now." Katherine replied, taking a small sip of the tea before standing up and setting it onto her desk before going to turn on the main light, she had to shield her eyes at the sudden brightness. She folded away the blanket and set it on the far side of the sofa, making room for the Professor to sit down, if he wanted to.

"Did you do all this?" she heard the Professor ask, gesturing towards the rows upon rows of files, folders and boxes. "Or are you just continuing on from your predecessor?"

"All me, you should've seen it before," Katherine answered as she leaned back against her desk, another yawn escaping from her lips. She studied the Professor, noticing how tensely he stood and how neatly he was dressed. As far as first impressions went, it was a bit _too _formal. "Professor, would you like some advice?"

"Yes, please." he replied quickly; new job, new staff, new rules - it was all a bit intimidating.

"You don't need to dress so seriously, work is fun - remember that," Katherine advised as she approached her new boss and loosened his tie, then undid the first two buttons of his button down shirt. She stood back, studying him a moment before stepping forward and messing up his combed hair. "Chill out. You'll live longer. My work is done, on you go."

After a confused few seconds, the Professor turned and left, scratching his ruffled haired head in befuddlement.

***T*O*R*C*H*W*O*O*D***

"Work is fun... Hmm..." Arthur mumbled aloud to himself in thought. "Work is fun..."

Shaun wolf whistled as he watched his deshabilled boss walk out from the door leading to downstairs, "Looks like you got more than forgiveness."

"As a matter of fact, I did," Arthur replied, oblivious to what Shaun had been hinting at. "She gave me some advice."

"Like how to make an Archivist moan?" Shaun guessed before laughing loudly at his own joke.

"What are you talking about?"

"Got a bit of sex hair going on there," Shaun grinned before pointing to his crooked tie and unbuttoned collar. "Couldn't even dress yourself right again.

"Wh-what? No! Dear God, no," Arthur's eyes widened as he realised what Shaun had been getting at, his cheeks turning a delicate shade of pink. He fixed his hair and buttoned his collar, then readjusted his tie back to its original state. "Work is fun, that's what she said. 'Chill out'. I didn't need to dress... so... seriously..."

Shaun was practically wetting his jeans with laughter, having worked out what Katherine had done. Arthur, however, couldn't understand why the Brigadier was in stitches.

"She's a genius, what a cracker joke!" Shaun roared gleefully as he tried to catch his breath.

Katherine had messed up Arthur's professional look for two reasons; 1) to get him to relax a bit, and 2) to make it seem as if he'd been participating in some... extracurricular activities.

"Oh..." Arthur spoke after a moment, finally catching on. His face flushed a deeper pink in embarrassment before he quickly scurried into his office, all the while running his hand through his greying hair.

* * *

**Another installment of my far from successful spin on Torchwood. Oh well.**

**Professor Arthur Darwin - Hugh Laurie**


	3. No Pets Allowed

**Disclaimer **I don't own Torchwood, or Belfast (obviously), or retcon, or _Lagan Integrated College_. I do however own all of the Torchwood Five team, and the Aliens in this chapter (the Heligovs and the Finned Starkwebber).

**Info** This was meant to be up at the start of September, but I got slightly... Side tracked by college and work, so couldn't get it up. This takes place on the weekend before school started up again for everyone (in Northern Ireland, anyway.) I'm planning a Halloween Special and a Christmas Special, which I will hopefully get up during the actual holidays.

**Author's Note **Special thanks to the two people who reviewed chapter two;

Torchwood Cardiff - Thank you, I hope this chapter is as good as the last.

mammamoody - Hopefully it goes well :)

* * *

**Torchwood**

**Chapter Three: No Pets Allowed**

Just before Autumn had arrived in 1943; Torchwood Five were removed from their base following a mass flooding occurring within the hub after an Anomaly appeared on the second floor, bringing with it not only gallons and gallons of water, but also a deadly amphibious alien called a Finned Starkwebber.

A Finned Starkwebber looked like a cross between a crocodile, a lion, and a lemur - not to mention the sickly pale scaled shark fin upon its back. It had retractable claws, a venomous bite and an impressive speed. A naturalborn killer.

It took Torchwood a good month perhaps before they could return to their base, although it took a further few weeks after the Starkwebber was sedated and thrown back into the Anomaly to drain the water from the hub tithe creature had caused a fair bit of damage during its short visit though.

***T*O*R*C*H*W*O*O*D***

_2012_

A few weeks had passed since Torchwood Five had received their new team leader, and now the weather had turned sour again. The week before had been surprisingly sunny and dry.

It was the first Saturday of September, which meant a special event for the Torchwood agents – Bring Your Pet To Work Day. Siobhan had started it four years ago to see if it would boost happiness levels amongst her workers, it did. Arthur had been informed the day before about the event, it was an inside team thing.

Shaun McCoy was the first to arrive to the hub, entering through the back way as usual. Sitting on his right shoulder was a beautiful Greenwing Macaw, named Captain.

"It's raining!" Captain whistled as he spread his wings out and jumped from his owner's shoulder, gliding smoothly over and perching himself on Shaun's computer monitor. "It's pouring!"

Shaun shrugged off his dripping rain coat and hung it up on the hat stand, shaking out his wet hair as he climbed the steps up to his desk – Captain pattering about the keyboard.

"What're we doing today, Captain?" Shaun asked the Macaw while turning on his computer and getting the bird off the keyboard long enough to log in.

"Help Doc saw." the parrot replied, mimicking the sound of an electric table saw as he jumped up onto the computer mouse and stared at his owner with intelligent golden eyes.

"Uh... Close – but no," Shaun removed himself from his desk and entered the small kitchen, lifting down four different shaped and coloured mugs from the cupboard above the sink before filling & flicking on the kettle – the others would be along soon. "Inspection day on the cells, buddy."

Dropping a teabag into each mug, he popped two sweeteners into Katherine's and a dollop of honey into Naina's.

Daniel showed up a few minutes later, his waterproof rubber duck yellow raincoat streaked with water. Poking out from his left pocket was the pointed head of a black rat, its whiskers twitching madly.

"Good morning, Shaun," he greeted as he gently lifted the rat out of his pocket and set the little creature onto his desk before stripping the wet coat off and hanging it up beside Shaun's. Daniel was aware of the Macaw only for the fact that he squawked loudly. "Hello, Captain."

"Tea?" Shaun offered as he handed a cup out to him. "And morning."

"Thank you," Daniel too the mug and sat down at his desk. "We'll need to be careful, the rain might flood in here."

The Black Rat on Daniel's desk, scurrying over a stack of papers, was Tumble. A present from his father for Christmas two years ago, the little guy had turned out to be a loyal companion.

"Darwin can sort it out," Shaun shrugged his shoulders as he drank his own tea and entered his tinkering room. "Make sure you don't leave anything important lying about... Just in case."

A sopping wet Katherine arrived an hour later, a white German Shepherd in the same condition obediently by her side.

"The whole road's like a bloody river!" Katherine exclaimed, referring to the long road that led up to the Stormont Parliament Building. Her light blue raincoat was useless, the hooded jumper she'd put on underneath mildly damp, thankfully the water hadn't gone all the way through to her red short sleeved t-shirt.

"Morning Katherine." the shy half-human greeted as Tumble clicked the buttons on the computer mouse feverishly with his front paws.

"It better not flood down here, it'll go all the way to the basement. And then, then I'll be complaining!"

"No you won't." Daniel smiled softly as she took her coat and jacket off, hanging them both on the hat stand, leaving her in her red t-shirt with the original logo for Torchwood on it in black.

"No, I won't. But if I did!" Katherine wagged her finger at Daniel, as if to make a point. "That'd be them told!"

The white German Shepherd, with soft blue eyes and a black leather collar, was Vincent – named after Katherine's favourite artist, Vincent Van Gough.

"Vinny, come 'ere," Katherine called as she emerged from the kitchen holding a towel, the Shepherd immediately padded over to his master, who proceeded in towel drying his short white fur. "There's my good boy." - Vincent relished in the attention, his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth.

"Tea's in the kitchen!" Shaun shouted from his room.

"Cheers!" Katherine shouted back, giving Vincent one last scrub before draping the towel over his back and dandering into the kitchen, where she poured out the cold cup of tea Shaun had made and continued to make herself a fresh one.

Vincent shook the towel off his back and trotted into Shaun's tinkering room, where he was promptly shouted at to get out. Captain cawed in laughter before swooping down and landing onto the Shepherd's back, who rebelled with a snort before padding over to his master's desk and collapsing onto his side beside it.

"Oi, Vinny-bo-binny, downstairs," Katherine walked out of the kitchen and moved to the door that led to the stairs leading down to her office. "Work, work, work."

Captain flapped to Shaun as Vincent heaved himself to his paws and followed his master, leaving Daniel and Tumble in a peaceful silence.

Not long after, Naina appeared through the back door with a pet carrier in her right hand. Droplets rolled over the plastic green raincoat she was wearing, which was hung up along with the others soon enough.

Setting the pet carrier on her desk after she moved the keyboard away, Naina opened the door and a sleek light grey cat with hypnotising greenish yellow eyes swayed gracefully from the box.

The cat was a Russian Blue, around her neck a silver and navy collar with a very jingly bell attached to it. This was Grace, who Naina had adopted as a kitten from a family who could no longer look after her.

Arthur was the only one missing now, who showed up forty-three minutes later at twenty-seven minutes to 11am. He shuffled through the front way, a briefcase in his left hand and a red lead attached to a Welsh Corgi around his right wrist.

"Here, hold on a moment," Shaun snapped as he stood at the entrance to his room with his hands on his hips, Captain on his shoulder. "You can't come through the front way."

"I am the boss here, you can't tell me what I can and cannot do." Arthur tried to undermine the ex-Brigadier, his grey suit had quickly darkened as soon as he'd climbed out of his car.

The Welsh Corgi had been Arthur's ex-wife's dog, but after she divorced him, he'd been left with the dog, Lola.

Even after more than two weeks as the new leader of Torchwood Five, Arthur still found it difficult to stand up to the close-knit team. So far, over the weeks, the Professor had been swamped with the paperwork left behind by Special Agent Kray – meaning the team worked away keeping Belfast safe from Jekylls. Arthur hadn't been out on the field with the team yet, due to the lack of experience and all the paperwork he had to sign off on.

"I don't care. Only the Director uses the front way," Shaun took his protective goggles and welding gloves off before chucking them onto the work bench behind him and walking over to his desk. Captain perched on the computer monitor as Shaun collapsed into his chair and grabbed the walkie-talkie out of its charger, adjusting the channel and pressing in the talk button. "Metal melter to Dusty files. Metal melter to Dusty files, do you copy?"

"Loud and clear Brig, what's the Craic?" Katherine's voice crackled through the walkie-talkie a few seconds later.

"New element has come through the front end of the fox burrow, over." Shaun relayed, he loved using codewords and codenames over the radios, the others let him work away.

The line was silent, just as Shaun was about to repeat himself, "Vinny and I are on our way up now."

"Over and out." Shaun replied, replacing the talkie as Arthur unclipped Lola's lead from her collar.

"Is that your rat?" Arthur asked Daniel as he noticed the black furred rodent. "What's his name?"

"Tumble," was Daniel's reply, lifting up the rat for the Professor to pet. "Well, his full name is Zytriasoxtumibleykroll, after my favourite planet in the Rexam galaxy. But Tumble for short."

"Right..." Arthur spoke, timidly stroking the rat's head before continuing on, only to spot the Greenwing Macaw. "Oh, hello," - he greeted Captain, walking up the steps to get a closer view as he stopped behind Shaun - "Who's a pretty birdie?"

"Fuck off, glo-worm." Captain responded, twisting his head from side-to-side.

"I beg your pardon?!" Arthur demanded, the tips of his ears burning red.

"It's raining!" the Macaw whistled. "It's pouring!"

"What a ghastly creature," Arthur tried to insult the parrot as he picked Lola up and clambered up the stairs to his office. "Pretty birdie my backside."

"Fuck off, glo-worm!" the green feathered bird squawked back.

"Now, now, Captain. Play nice," Katherine smiled as she opened the door wider for Vincent and the two of them wandered in, she held out her hand and the Macaw swooped over to her and perched on her wrist, she stroked his head and he nuzzled her fingers. "Who's a pretty bird?"

"You are." Captain cooed.

"Captain!" Shaun barged him, to which the Macaw wolf whistled.

"Why was I sworn at?" Arthur demanded, leaning on the metal bannister just outside his office, Lola sitting panting at his feet.

"You said birdie." Katherine grinned up to her boss, who still hadn't forgiven her for the prank she'd played on him.

"I'm not dignifying that with a response." Arthur huffed, lifting Lola and storming off into his office.

"Very mature." Katherine called up before going over to her desk and taking a seat.

Captain, wanting to stretch his wings, decided to fly a few laps around the base. And that's how the hub stayed, peaceful and quiet... For all of fifteen minutes.

An alarm went off, signalling alien activity near by. Daniel was usually the one to trip the alarm, as he was the one monitoring emergency calls and CCTV footage.

"I'm getting calls from a builder up at the Lagan College site to the police, apparently there's a 'dragon-y, alien-y thingy' attacking people," Daniel informed everyone, using air quotes. "Tools, cement and a few workers have gone missing over the last couple of weeks."

"School starts on Monday, this needs to be dealt with fast," Katherine, forgetting about the Professor still in his office, took control of the situation without a second thought. "Call the police, tell them we'll be dealing with this. Then call the school and tell them we're on our way."

"Rightio." Daniel was straight onto the phone to the Police Station the builder had been connected to in a few seconds.

"Shaun, we're going to need tranquillisers – strong ones," Katherine grabbed her gun, Torchwood identification card, Comms and her Police badge... Just in case. "Daniel, you stay here and phone us if anything unusual happens. Naina, I need-"

"Hang on! Hang on! I'm coming too!" Arthur scrambled down the rickety metal steps, Lola waddling along after him.

"She can't come with, I'm afraid." Katherine pointed down to the panting Corgi at his heels.

"If you're pedigree reject is coming, then so it Lola." Arthur argued stubbornly, clumsily slipping his gun (hopefully with the safety on) into the inner pocket of his suit jacket.

"_Vincent_ is a fully-trained Police dog," She replied, taking a deep breath and refraining herself from screaming at him because he was still her boss, after all. She rested her hand on Vincent's head as the white haired Shepherd stepped up beside his master. "She can just barely manage to keep up with you."

"Right, I've got a weak tranquilliser, one for horses, one designed for Abnarks, and an elephant tranquilliser – just in case." Shaun interrupted as he emerged from his room. "A scaly alien isn't very descriptive."

"We'll take the van, we don't know how big this thing is." Katherine turned, grabbing a pair of keys from the key holder on the wall beside Shaun's room, and left through the back with Vincent loyally at her side.

"Daniel will look after her," Shaun assured the Professor, referring to his little Corgi. "Won't you, Dan?"

"Yes, yes of course." Daniel agreed.

Shaun and Katherine were the main field agents, Naina would join them every other alien-alert, Daniel usually remained within the comfort of the hub.

Naina was tagging along with Shaun and the Professor, she normally would have went with Katherine – she could blame their team leader for that.

"Help Daniel out, Captain." Shaun instructed the resting Macaw perching on his desk.

"Yes sir, Brig." Captain complied with a flap of his wings.

"I'm counting on you, buddy," Shaun told the parrot as he slipped back on his jacket. "Keep 'er lit, Daniel."

Shaun was the designated driver, Naina claimed the passenger's side seat and the Professor was stuck in the back, anxiously waiting for his first alien hunt with Torchwood Five.

Passing the Cregagh estate, Shaun drove the car up a very steep and very uneven road appropriately named the 'Rocky Road'. It was dangerous enough during dry weather, it was down right deadly during the winter.

The Rocky Road led directly out onto the Manse Road, on the other side of which was the entrance to Lagan Integrated College. The high school was currently having a new building built, the work had obviously been halted for the day due to the bad weather... The place was probably flooded anyway, actually.

As they drove up to the entrance of the school, they were stopped by a drenched man wearing a neon green sleeveless reflective jacket, "What do you want?"

"Torchwood." Naina answered, holding up her ID to him as he'd walked up to the passenger's side.

"We've already got one of you."

"We're the rest of the team." Shaun remarked, keeping his foot firmly placed on the brake peddle.

"The builders phoned about some sort of wild animal disrupting their schedule, we're here to help catch it." Naina spoke up to the gate guarder.

"Mm... Fine, fine. Get it sorted quick." He grumbled, opening the low gate and allowing them to roll down the declining road.

The only other vehicle parked in the parking lot (which was more like a paddling pool by now) was a small black van... Torchwood Five's small, black, unmarked van.

"Ready to get cracking?" Katherine asked as they gathered together between the two parked vehicles, Vincent standing between her legs – half out of the rain. She put her comm. into her ear and turned it on, connecting her to the limited United Nations channel 5.

"Let's go." Shaun put his comm. in and turned it on as well, it automatically connected to channel 5 as he took the lead. Even thought they were on the school grounds, the main school building wasn't where they were headed.

The new building being built was surrounded by nine-foot tall stretches of green wood, as building had started the year before and it was to keep the students from running about the building site and possibly getting themselves hurt.

Wheelbarrows and large orange buckets stood crookedly in puddles overflowing with rainwater, toolboxes were half sunk into the mud – this was the sight Torchwood were greeted by as they entered the building site. The body of the new building was complete and they were now fitting in the insulation between the walls and the double-glazed windows. There were, however, no doors. Anything could just wander in; a homeless badger, a stray cat... A stranded giant reptilian alien. Who knows?

"We need to find out where the builders are holding up," Katherine decided, Shaun and Naina nodded in agreement. Arthur just observed his team at work. "The one who phoned the problem in can show us where he last seen the creature."

They found all but five of the builders in a spacious portakabin that had become the designated break room for the workmen, three of the five were off with nasty colds, the last two were missing.

The head honcho was a 6ft 7 giant of a man with short dark blonde hair and worn blue eyes, he was also a cheery and generous fellow.

"Bassil Stone, I'm the Chief builder." He introduced himself, shaking each of their hands.

"Are you the one who called the Police?" Naina questioned.

"No, that was-" Bassil stopped himself from insulting one of his staff in front of them. "Charlie. Charlie's the one who phoned the Police," - the four gave each other a look - "You are the Police, right?"

"We're beyond the Police." Shaun replied with a grin.

"We're Torchwood!" Arthur butted in, lurching forward as he said it, excited to say it for the first time.

"Very subtle..." Katherine muttered sarcastically. Yeah... she and the Professor were definite;y not getting along.

"Where is Charlie now?" Naina asked, getting back on topic.

"He's over there-" Bassil turned and pointed to an empty seat, upon which was half a sandwich and a stainless steel flask lying on its side. "Er... He _was _over there."

The several conversations being held amongst the builders were silenced by a loud, thunderous roar. If one was into dinosaurs, the noise was what you'd imagine a Triceratops to sound like. Everyone froze, a primal fear locking their joints firmly in place.

"Nobody move," Shaun ordered as he took out his tranquilliser gun and loaded it. "We're here to deal with the situation as quickly as possible."

"Wh-what was that?" A young, fairly new looking, guy squeaked from the back.

"Nothing you need be concerning yourself about." Katherine gave him a cheeky wink before the four (plus Vincent) left the builders in search of the source of the sound.

If they were to split up when they were hunting for an alien, Shaun and Katherine ended up on separate teams. It wasn't that they didn't like each other, they were actually rather good friends, but they were both leaders – if it was just the two of them on a job they would constantly clash.

"Doc, you're with me. You can have the Professor." Shaun grinned slyly at Katherine, and before she could protest, the ex-Brigadier and Doctor were away.

Arthur was meant to be the leader of Torchwood Five, so far he was more like a sheep. He looked over at a tense Katherine, "Are you okay?"

"Fine. Dandy. _Terrific_," She sighed, glancing down at Vincent (giving him a scratch behind the ears) before over at the Professor. "We'll check inside first."

***T*O*R*C*H*W*O*O*D***

"They're going to kill each other, you know." Naina commented as she and Shaun made their way around the outside of the bare cinder block building.

"Oh I know." He grinned, looking through the windows into the inside of the building whenever he caught something out of the corner of his eye – which turned out to be just a sheet of plastic.

"Then why do it?"

"For a laugh."

For the place being deserted, there was a lot of noise. Rain drumming on the installed windows, pelting down onto metal poles and empty tin barrels. The creature couldn't be that big otherwise more of the men would have reported it, so it was roughly of medium size – Shaun and Naina should be able to handle it by themselves no bother.

"You can be so cruel-" Naina had started, only to be interrupted by another roar – smaller this time, weaker.

Shaun lifted a finger silently to his lips as he turned to face Naina, motioning for her to keep quiet. Whatever they were hunting was close by, and sounded smaller than it had before...

"Slow and steady." He whispered the instruction to her as he moved forward, rounding the corner ahead gingerly.

There it was, sitting right in front of them, the creature terrorising the builders! It was... A bit small, to be honest. Well, smaller than they'd been expecting. Although, in all fairness, it was about the size of a fully grown grizzly bear.

"Well... Now that we know what it looks like, it'll be easier to identify." Naina whispered, watching the creature's small, rounded ears flicker. It's skin looked much like an elephants, except a maroon colour instead of grey. Taking out her gorgeous new silver Samsung Galaxy S III, she snapped a picture of the alien and sent it to Katherine.

"It's just sitting there... What's it waiting for?" Shaun wondered aloud, watching the unknown creature as it yawned widely - revealing two small teeth protruding from the alien's light pink gums. If he didn't know any better, he would have said the thing was an... Infant.

Naina's phone buzzed in he pocket, a reply from Katherine. 'That's a Govling', was how the text started. 'It's only a baby Heligov.'

"It's only a baby," Naina whispered to Shaun, his suspicion had been correct. "Katherine says it's a Govling, a baby Heligov."

"If that's the baby, then where's the mother?" Shaun questioned.

***T*O*R*C*H*W*O*O*D***

Vincent stayed close to his Master's side as she and the Professor searched the shell of the new school building, neither of the Torchwood Five members were speaking to each other... Again.

"Hang on," Katherine called to the Professor as her black iPhone 4 vibrated in her pocket. She lifted it out to see a text from Naina with a photo attached to it, tapping the photo caused it to enlarge. "I think Naina and Shaun found it."

The photograph was of a hairless maroon skinned creature with four legs, short blunt horns, ears like a cow's and deep green eyes. It was roughly the size of a large mammal, a grizzly bear perhaps, but by no means fully grown yet.

"Well?" Arthur enquired, wanting to be kept in the loop. "Have they?"

"Yes, and no," Katherine replied vaguely. "Yes they found it, but it's only a baby - which means mummy is close by."

"And how big is mummy?"

"Have you ever seen a Woolly Mammoth skeleton?"

"Yes," He replied, and with a look from Katherine, his eyebrows rose in realisation. "We're going to need a bigger van."

"_Really_," Katherine replied sarcastically as she text Naina back, telling her what she had was the miniature version of what they were looking for. "Right, now to find mummy."

Standing beside one another, the Archivist and Professor froze as Vincent started growling at something behind them.

They physically shivered as a hot puff of breath was huffed at them, shrouding their vision very briefly by a cloud of mist as the warm breath hit the cold air.

"I think _she _found _us_." Arthur whispered.

And then the wailing started.

***T*O*R*C*H*W*O*O*D***

"What do we do?" Naina asked, Shaun usually had a plan of action.

"What can we do?" Was his counter-question.

"We could... I don't know, find the Anomaly and shoo it in somehow," Naina suggested, trying to think of a plan. "We can't just sit here and watch it."

"There's not much we can do until the mother's found-" he was interrupted by a horrific sound, much like the first one they'd heard. Thunderous, powerful, and a little bit scary. "Mummy's been found."

"Ah!" Someone screamed, when that someone got closer they realised it was Katherine, followed by Vincent and just behind him the Professor – gaining on the small group was a larger version of the Govling in front of them, which when compared to the mother was very clearly a baby.

"Where's the Anomaly?!" Arthur demanded, his eyes wide with panic, the mother Heligov stampeding closer and closer.

"We haven't found it yet!" Shaun shouted back as the baby Govling began bleating at the sound if its mother - which set her off further.

"Then find it!" Katherine screamed, stumbling as she lunged out of the way of the charging Heligov.

Naina led Shaun up on to the barren second floor, the ground soaking from the wind blowing the rapidly falling rain.

There, hidden in the farthest corner of the room, was the Anomaly. Shining, alive... And beginning to fade. If it disappeared before they were able to get the Heligoves into it, they'd be stuck with the mother and baby until they figured out what to with them.

"Finally," Quickly turning his Comms. link on, Shaun connected to channel five immediately. "Kat, Anomaly's upstairs, second floor."

"How do we get them up there?" Arthur questioned, panting heavily.

"... I wasn't prepared for a follow-up question." Shaun scoffed with a roll of his eyes.

"Doesn't matter, I've got an idea," Katherine butted in before an argument could arise. "See you in a few."

***T*O*R*C*H*W*O*O*D***

The two Torchwood agents (including Vincent) had just barely managed to give the mother Heligov the slip, hiding behind behind a pile of bags full of cement mix covered in a sheet of plastic to keep them dry.

"My plan to get the mum upstairs," Katherine replied, peeking over the top of the white bags to locate the Heligov, who was stalking closer and closer with every pace to their hiding spot. "She'll do anything to keep him safe."

"So... What do I do?"

"You're going to distract her while I go to Sasha and get him upstairs." Katherine instructed.

"What?!" Arthur squawked in outrage, loud enough to draw the attention of the mother Heligov.

"Better skedaddle." Katherine grinned, to which the Professor glared at her before leaping up and dashing out into the open, obviously attracting the attention of the agitated Heligov.

"I hate this plan!" Arthur squealed as he led the alien away, giving Katherine the chance to sneak over to the Govling and try to loop the belt around his neck - which was surprisingly easy as he just sat there.

"Come on, Sasha," Katherine tried to motivate him to move, pulling gently on the end of her belt. "There's a good boy, come on."

Katherine had told Vincent to hide behind the bags of cement mix and not to move, in case he startled the Govling. If he thought she was in danger then he'd obviously jump in to protect her, but until then he would obey his master's order - stay.

With a little more coaxing, 'Sasha' stoops up and trotted along after the Archivist as she tugged on the belt.

"Hurry up!" Arthur wheezed, beginning to tire.

"Bring her up!" Katherine shouted as she pulled 'Sasha' up the stairs leading to the first floor, he followed with little resistance. "Lickety-split!"

"On it now!"

"Quick, quick, Sasha. Good boy." Katherine guided 'Sasha' over to the Anomaly, stopping him just as they were approaching the the gap in space and taking her belt off his neck.

Arthur appeared a few moments later, the mother Heligov thundering past him after spotting her baby to far away for her liking.

Katherine pushed 'Sasha' from behind into the Anomaly, diving out of the way as his mother followed, moments before the Anomaly shut itself.

"That solves that problem." Shaun grinned as he helped Katherine up to her feet.

"Take me back to the hub. Now'd be nice..." She whined as the ex-Brigadier pulled her up.

"Just be glad it closed itself." Shaun laughed as the four made their way downstairs, Katherine calling Vincent as they made their way back out to parking lot, the rain still drumming against the ground.

All four of their Comms. beeped to life by themselves as Daniel tried to contact them, the wireless hands free earpieces would be turned off and then would turn themselves on if an incoming call was trying to be made.

"Danny-boy, you've reached the mobile team," Shaun answered. "We got the aliens back through the Anomaly with minimum done, all's good."

"That's not what I'm calling about..." Daniel replied sheepishly.

"Daniel, what's happened?" Naina paused in her walking, there was a hint of fear in his voice.

"An Anomaly opened up in the hub..." Daniel trailed off near the end, clearly dreading what he had to tell his team next. "The place is flooded. I'm standing up on my desk right now."

"What?!" Arthur shouted, eyes wide with alarm - if he didn't resolve the problem ASAP, Siobhan would skin him alive and feed whatever was left to the Jekylls. "We'll be there as fast as eel can."

"Just stay calm, and make sure nothing came through with the water." Katherine instructed as they all jumped into the vehicles they came in.

Ignoring the speeding limits on every road they drove down, driving through two red lights and weaving down a one-way street, the team made it back to base in a record breaking 7 minutes and 11 seconds.

As soon as the back doors to the base were opened, water came flooding out, nearly sweeping them off their feet.

Katherine was almost knocked over by Vincent as he jumped up into her arms after the water was released, she was forced into Shaun however, who bumped into the Professor and almost toppled him over.

The water pooled behind them, having nowhere else to go as stairs were needed to exit the back way.

The four trekked into the base, forcing themselves through the thick water, wading their ways up to the level where all their desks were sitting. The water had reached the added level until they'd entered through the back door and all the water whooshed towards them, the hard drives may have been damaged - but everything was automatically backed up into a larger hard drive in the Professor's office.

"It's raining!" Captain, Shaun's parrot, whistled as he spotted his master from his perch upon Shaun's computer. "It's pouring!"

Tumble the black rat was safe and dry in Daniel's shirt pocket, he was indeed standing up on his desk, although was beginning to climb down now that the others were back.

Grace, Naina's cat, lay sprawled out over the keyboard of the computer on her owner's desk.

Lola, the Professor's ex-wife's Corgi, was lying on her stomach up on the first level watching the chaos.

From the water level mark on the wall, the water had gone down from shoulder height to waist high. Which was better, but still not particularly good.

"Wonderful," Arthur sighed angrily. "Oh this is just brilliant."

"Stop whining," Katherine replied, moving Vincent in her arms into a more comfortable position as she looked at Shaun. "Away and turn the filters on."

"Fine," Shaun complied with a roll of his eyes as he splashed down into the water turning around and looking up at Katherine with a questioning look. "We have filters?"

"The hub was flooded in 1943, after they cleared the water they installed filters in case it happened again."

"Where are they?"

"Fifth level, not the Archives room, the other one," Katherine explained, dropping Vincent onto his paws. "There's a button and a code pad, type in '2092' and hit the button..."

"Right, I'll be up in a few," Shaun nodded, his eyebrows furrowing as he noticed Katherine's gaze looking at something behind him. "What?"

"Come up here very slowly." Katherine instructed, not taking her eyes off of whatever was behind him.

As soon as he'd spun round, he regretted it. Slicing silently through the water's surface heading towards him was a tall, sickly green shark fin.

"Ah crap..." Shaun swallowed hard, watching as the fin got closer and closer.

* * *

**The chapter is finished, but because my laptop is acting up, I've had to do most of this on my iPhone and use an iPad to upload it.**

**It needs to be edited, which I willdo when my laptop is repaired again.**


	4. Part One - Christmas Crackers

**Disclaimer **I don't own Torchwood, or Belfast (obviously), or any of the Christmas songs. I do however own Torchwood Five, and any gizmos and aliens I think up and put in.

**Author's Note** The support I'm getting for this story is _phenomenal,_ by the way. Keep it up. I should answer the review I got

Alice - As soon as I read your review I said to myself 'Alice, you star'. It genuinely made me smile. And I'm very glad you find my writing easy to read, that's always nice to hear.

**A/N PS. **This Chapter was meant to be a Halloween chapter, but I was swamped by work and College and never got the chance to write it. So I thought I'd write a Christmas special, since every chapter is like it's own part of the story anyway. Enjoy.

**A/N PSS. **I'm a little late on the update again, and I can't promise it won't happen again. But I'll try not to let it happen.

* * *

**Torchwood**

**Christmas Special**

**Chapter Four, Part One: Christmas Crackers**

Christmas Eve of 1946 was a rather unusual and confusion affair, the year the snowmen came to life and walked the streets.

No one knows exactly when people began making snowmen, in fact, the first recorded snowman had been made by a Mr Vernon N. Paul and his 9-year-old daughter in 1809.

Snowmen actually arrived much sooner than that in the early 1600s, through an Anomaly that had opened up on a constantly snowy planet named Sneachtadyn, connecting it to Earth. The natives of this planet were, for lack of a description, Snowpeople. Or at least, they looked like snow. Living beings made of ice and frost. Afraid of the humans at first, they would stand still if approached by one. Then they were copied by the Earthlings.

It didn't catch on, however, until the 1800s after Paul spotted a pair standing in a forest. It spread like wildfire after that.

***T*O*R*C*H*W*O*O*D***

_2012 – Christmas Eve_

December in Belfast hadn't began with the greatest of starts, what with the Union Flag being taken down from the top of the City Hall. And that hadn't even been the problem, it was what came about as a result of the flag being taken down – riots.

The riots, much to the displeasure of businesses and hotels at the heart of Belfast, had scared of tourists from visiting. Videos, pictures, vandalism, armoured Police vehicles, protesters; they were everywhere. The protesters made sure to be out in as large a group as they could get at the busiest time of the day, the time when people were leaving work and pupils are leaving school to go home.

The last few days leading up to Christmas had been quiet though, thankfully the protesters had given up their protesting until after the holidays.

Beneath the Stormont Parliament building, hidden away from the public, was the headquarters of Torchwood Five. For being nineteen and a half feet below ground level, the base was surprisingly cheerful, especially around this time of year.

Shaun McCoy, Katherine Cairns, Naina Cowell and Daniel O'Connell had decorated the hub with tinsel (every colour they could get, from dazzling deep golds to sparkling silvery whites) and little dressed trees, fake snow, snow globes, little snowmen, everything. Arthur Darwin, the leader of the team, had brought in a collection of Christmas CDs by various artists, which was being played throughout the base.

Everyone was in high spirits,well, everyone that was there. Naina had left the day before with her family to Bangor, where they were meeting other family members and staying with them over the holidays.

Katherine and Shaun were currently singing _Baby, It's Cold Outside_, the version by Bing Crosby and Doris Day as it was played over the speakers - Daniel sat smiling gleefully as he watched them, very much entertained. For only joking about, they were quite good when they sang together, which was a rare festive treat as Shaun didn't normally sing and Katherine only sang when she thought she was alone.

"'How can you do this thing to me?'" Shaun sang up to Katherine, who was standing on a pair of step ladders, hanging more tinsel.

"'There's bound to be talk tomorrow.'" She sang back.

"'Think of my life-long sorrow.'" He continued to sing, overlapping the end of her line, mimicking the lyrics.

"'At least there will be plenty implied.'."

"'If you caught pneumonia and died.'"

"'I really can't stay.'" Katherine, for some reason, began to grin – It was the sort of grin that someone made when they were trying not to laugh.

"'Get over that old out.'"

"'Baby, it's cold,'" they sang together now, in unison. "'Baby, it's cold outside'!"

Just as Katherine taped the end of the tinsel to the wall, giggling now, Shaun grabbed her and twirled her around the main level to the base as the next song came on, _It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year _By Andy Williams.

The Professor was sitting at Naina's unoccupied desk, clapping the pair, and Daniel joined in. Who needed TV? The Ex-Brigadier and Detective Inspector were far more entertaining than anything that would be on at the moment.

The time was getting on now, the clock on the wall standing at 10 minutes past 3 in the afternoon. Outside was windy and wet, the sky occasionally turned cloudy, but it wasn't cold enough for snow... Yet.

"Right you," Katherine laughed as Shaun twirled her again. "If you want to be in Coleraine before dinner, you better hurry up."

"You'll miss me," Shaun replied with one last spin before letting her go. "I know it."

"Why would I miss you when I've got Daniel?" Katherine grinned back, walking up to Daniel (sitting on his wheeled chair for his desk) and hugging him from behind.

"Hardy har, har." Shaun sarcastically laughed.

"Are you doing anything for Christmas Arthur?" Katherine asked him, turning the chair with her as she rested her chin upon Daniel's crown.

"I'm afraid not. The girls are staying with their mother, again," Arthur shrugged his shoulders with a sigh. "I'm left to fend for myself this year."

Arthur and Katherine were on friendly terms now, even chatting sometimes about their family lives. He told her that he had two daughters, both teenagers now - the oldest being Tiffany and the youngest being Sarah.

"Shit one." Shaun commented as he collected his things from his desk, which was a Northern Irish term that if translated meant 'how unlucky for you'.

Even if the Professor had of made plans, he wouldn't have been able to go far from the hub. Being the leader of Torchwood Five came with more responsibility, much more than just leading a team and doing paperwork - even if his team were gone, he'd have to stay and look after the base, just in case something were to happen.

"That's enough out of you," Katherine hushed as she unwrapped her arms from around Daniel's shoulders. "Now clear off."

"Right, right. I'm gone," Shaun grinned as he grabbed his bag, he stopped at the back entrance to snatch his jacket. "See youse next week." - And with that said, Shaun slung his bag over his shoulder and walked out through the Dalekanium doors rather noisily.

"And silence fell." joked Katherine as she returned to the step ladders, folding it up and setting it against the wall. She lifted her phone out of her pocket to see what time it actually was, it was only a quarter past three - a whole five minutes had past by.

"Well, I should probably get back to the paperwork my team so thoughtfully created for me," Arthur stood up and gently stretched his back & legs, having sat in the one place for too long. As he was half-way up to his office, he suddenly turned with a grimace at his two remaining team members. "What about that alien down in cell 631?"

"The Skelktal?" Katherine asked with a raised eyebrow, trying not to show that she'd forgotten about the creature - she'd thought Shaun had returned it.

A Skelktal looked an awful lot like a badger the size of a deer, although it was grotesquely thin and disfigured. The other thing about the Skelktal that made it so... Unique, was that it looked like it had been turned inside out.

"Yes, the Skelktal." Arthur nodded his head.

"What about it?" She asked.

"What do you mean 'what about it?'. What do I do with it?"

"You'll need to feed it." Arthur gave her possibly the blankest look he'd ever given anyone, "What do I feed it, exactly?"

"Get a bucket, about a foot deep, and fill it with dog food," She replied as she moved to collect her own things, she had a family of her own to get home to. "Wait until he's asleep and quickly put the bowl in," - she grabbed her multicoloured scarf and bag after she'd put her phone back into her pocket - "He'll need fed at least four times a day."

"Four?!" Arthur echoed in alarm, it was going to cost a fortune to keep the Skelktal alive.

"Merry Christmas, Professor!" Daniel called, grabbing his things and following Katherine out, she was his ride home after all.

"Great, just excellent," Arthur muttered as his last two team members abandoned him. "Merry Christmas indeed."

***T*O*R*C*H*W*O*O*D***

_3.37pm_

As soon as Shaun had gotten home, he'd had to grab his bags and Captain's cage, stick them in the car and drive over to his mother's house – where the rest of his family were gathering. He'd swapped his bags and Captain over to the boot of his mother's car, and everyone else followed, then they all squeezed into the car and off they went.

Somewhere, hidden amongst the luggage, was a gold cardboard box with eight Christmas crackers inside it – two were green and gold, two were red and gold, two were green and red, and the final two were gold and white.

That had only been twenty minutes ago...

"Are we there yet?" David, Shaun's nephew moaned from the back seat.

"Does it look like we're there yet?" through the rear view mirror, Shaun seen David shake his head. "Well then."

Currently squashed into Shaun's mum's car (which was thankfully a seven-seater) was his younger sister Shirl, her husband Michael, his even younger brother Sheldon (who were sitting in the middle row), David and Rosie (who were in the very back) with Captain the Macaw sitting in a cage between them, and his mother Elizabeth (who was sitting in the passenger's seat while he drove). Add to the already limited space left in the car their luggage, and you had a classic family road trip.

"So how's work been, love?" His mother decided to ask, sparking up conversation. "Is your new boss fitting in alright?"

As it turned out, Shaun was the only one of Elizabeth's children that had a steady job. Shirl worked part-time between working behind a Check-out in Tesco and Waitressing in a small restaurant called 'The Twilight Hour', but it was only cover work while two girls were off on maternity leave. Sheldon had been unemployed since he'd left High School at 17, he'd done the odd paper route when he was younger, but that was it.

"Work's fine, same old same old, it's actually been pretty quiet," Shaun could only say, he couldn't tell his family about what he actually did, they would go mental. "And Professor Darwin is doing fine."

"You're not on-call, are you?" Shirl questioned him, stretching behind her to give David and Rosie a little apple juice carton each.

"I'm always on-call." Shaun winced at his answer. Shirl had disliked his job ever since he'd been called out of the middle of Rosie's Christening, she had been so embarrassed. In all fairness though, if he hadn't left the Christening, the Christening wouldn't have been finished anyway. Five years ago that had been, and at the time Jekyll were very popular and far more destructive.

"Can't you tell your boss to stuff it?" Sheldon scoffed from the behind him, clearly not interested and trying to get the conversation onto a more interesting subject.

"It doesn't work like that." Shaun reminded his brother, shifting gear and putting his foot down a little more on the accelerate.

"So?"

"You know what, when you get a job then you tell me about bosses."

"Ooh, touchy, aren't we."

"Just shut up." Shaun snapped at his brother over his shoulder quickly before focusing back on the road. This was going to be one long trip.

***T*O*R*C*H*W*O*O*D***

_3.47pm_

"Merry Christmas, Katherine!" Daniel smiled after he'd climbed out of her car and grabbed his bags from the boot.

That morning Daniel had packed the clothes he'd need from his flat before Katherine had showed up to give him a lift to work, he'd stashed his bags in the boot of her car beside her own when she'd picked him up from his flat that morning. His pet rat, Zytriasoxtumibleykroll (Tumble), was staying at a pet hotel over Christmas – where he'd get pampered and spoiled as much as a rat could.

"Have a good one, Dan." Katherine wished before he closed the passenger's side door.

Daniel stood and watched Katherine pull away from the curb and drive down the street, heading to her own family, he gave her a wave before she drove around a corner. With a sigh, Daniel turned on his heel and headed towards his mum's house.

"Mam?" Daniel called as he stepped into the warm house, it smelled of cinnamon and freshly baked goodies – which his mother was very good at making.

"Is that you, Danny love?" A female voice called back.

"Aye, mammy, it's me," Daniel smiled brightly as he headed towards the kitchen, dropping his bags against the wall opposite the bottom of the stairs. The kitchen was chaotic, there were several dozen hot plates with a different food on each. Daniel was bombarded with all sorts of scents, from the aroma of the cooked ham to the smell of the roast beef – and everything else in between. "What're you doing?"

Daniel's mother, Amelia O'Connell, was only in her early 40s and still had the wavy glossy black hair she'd had as a child, although it was cut to just above her shoulders now. Amelia was currently lifting out a medium sized turkey from the oven, it was a mouth-watering golden brown colour and the smell along was enough to drive anyone insane.

"I'm cooking, what does it look like I'm doing?" His mother asked rhetorically with a laugh.

"But Christmas isn't till tomorrow."

"I'm cooking everything now so that it just needs heated tomorrow, look," Amelia set the turkey onto the last bit of open space on the work top before taking her oven mitts off and opening the fridge – which was practically empty, a part from the four containers of milk and bottle of Tomato ketchup in the door. "I cleared space for everything."

"Let me help," Daniel offered, as he usual did on Christmas Day every year. He would carve the meat up for his mum so she could put it onto plates, wrap them in tin foil, and stick them in the fridge for later. "What do you want first?"

Since his step-father, Colin Norton, worked as a security guard from 4pm to 4am, he slept the day away until he had to get up for work. Which meant he wasn't much use when it came to doing things around the house, his step-brother Andrew was no different. Daniel's half-brother Harry would at least do the dishes every now and again.

"Start with the roast beef, then we'll get the ham sorted out and that gives the turkey a chance to cool down first." His mother instructed.

Daniel nodded his head and got out what he needed from beneath the sink before started carving up the roast beef, "So, how's things been?"

"You only seen me the other day." Amelia laughed.

"I know, but I'm not here all the time. Just wanted to make sure everything is going okay," He replied with a shrug. "I just want to make sure you're happy, living here with these lot."

"Oh, I see what you mean," she nodded her head at him with a small smile, it was nice for someone to worry about her for a change, not that there was a time where Amelia could ever remember Daniel not worrying about her. She never seen much of Harry or Andrew, and Colin was either in bed, at work or too focused on finding the easiest way to earn money fast. She hugged her eldest tightly, he was taller than her by only a few inches."I'm fine, promise."

Daniel kissed the top of his mother's head, "If you say so."

Amelia unwrapped her arms from around her son and held up a plate for him to put the carved meet on, "You're not on-call, are you?"

"I'm always on-call," He grinned as he made short work of the roast beef and scooped it up onto the offered plate. "What would they do without me?" - his mother chuckled at that as she put the plate down and lifted another one.

"Is that Daniel?!" A gruff, slurred voice yelled from upstairs.

"Oh no." Daniel groaned, his step-father was awake.

Somewhere sitting on the kitchen table, hidden beneath decorations and festive napkins, was a forgotten box of eight Christmas crackers – two were green and gold, two were red and gold, two were red and green, and the other two were gold and white.

***T*O*R*C*H*W*O*O*D***

_3.57pm_

Katherine showed up at her parents house with a hiking bag slung over her shoulder and Vincent walking obediently by her side, she walked up to the door and opened it with one fluid motion. It wasn't a big house, sandwiched between two similar two-storey houses, it had three bedrooms, a bathroom, a separate toilet, an open planned kitchen and a closely living room with a black sofa taking up a whole wall and a round chair opposite it.

There, standing abandoned beneath the television in the living room, stood a gold box of eight Christmas crackers – two were green and gold, two were red and gold, two were red and green, and two were gold and white.

"I'm home!" Katherine called as she closed the door behind her, once Vincent had followed her in.

"Awk hiya, love," Her father Wilbur greeted her as she entered the kitchen, his short curly brown hair was still thick and dark, like it had been in his youth and was quite good for a man in his late 40s. "It's so great to see you. I thought you'd be working late."

"It's great to see you too, and I managed to get away early." she smiled as he gave her a bear hug.

"So how's work?" Her mother Nichola asked, setting down a cup of tea for her.

Katherine smiled and tapped the side of her, "Top secret, hush, hush." - she joked.

"Of course, how silly of me," Her mother laughed, her father joining her. "You're not on call, are you?"

"I'm always on-call." Katherine smiled with a shrug, as long as she was paid a good wage her mum and dad tried not to be too sour about their eldest daughter's erratic working hours.

"Sometimes I wish you weren't." Her mother mumbled half-hearted, she knew how much Katherine liked her job.

"You can't let them take advantage of you, love. You can't say yes every time you're asked to do some extra work." Her dad commented, they had this conversation about seven times every year.

"They're not taking advantage of me. And I love my work."

"You were an Inspector," her father sighed, almost disappointedly. "A _Detective_ Inspector at that, with a chance for a promotion and better pay-"

"I'm not having this conversation with you," Katherine cut her father off, Vincent was becoming unsettled, shifting nervously and whining up at her. "We have it every year and it always goes the same way. I'm happy with my job, I'm satisfied with what I'm paid, and I'm not quitting."

"Wilbur, leave the poor child alone." Her mother rebuked her father, who didn't listen, as he always did.

"And now, instead of _helping_ people, making a _difference,_ you're archiving old files and useless shit for a company that're never gonna see it again?!" Her father bellowed, he always kicked off as soon as her job was brought up. "Why does an archivist need to be on-call anyway? Are they gonna need an emergency filing job done or something?"

It was moments like them that Katherine wished she could tell her family what her job actually was, not a quiet Archivist who was stuck down in some depressing basement sorting out files, but still a Detective Inspector and a Special agent for Torchwood. Where her and her team-mates saved the little country of Northern Ireland every other week. But no, she couldn't.

"And a very Merry Christmas to you too." Katherine spat on the verge of tears, lifting her bags from where she'd set them and scurrying up the stairs to her room with Vincent in tow.

***T*O*R*C*H*W*O*O*D***

_4.07pm_

Everyone in the Cowell household were relaxing in their pyjamas, just enjoying each others company – the one time of year where they were all actually together. The Cowell's were known for being workaholics, it ran in the family. Not to mention, practically the whole family were doctors.

Naina's father, Dalapathi Cowell, had once been a very successful surgeon – now he taught medical students. He was happy and often told people his job was 'self-satisfying' if they ever asked what he did.

Jaisinha Cowell, Naina's older brother, was also a doctor of surgery. Although unlike their father, he worked at the Ulster Hospital. His wife, Danielle Cowell, was a nurse at the same hospital – it had been where they first met. Their daughter, Ranita, was only fifteen and still in school.

Currently the Cowells were gathered in the kitchen, Jaisinha and Naina cooking together to make dinner for later. The house, in Bangor that belonged to their father, was dressed in every Christmas decoration they could find. In the living room was a gorgeously decorated Pine tree, all the presents they'd brought with them safely lying beneath the tree's branches.

Amongst the presents was a gold box, in it were eight Christmas crackers that gleamed in the multicoloured lights of the Christmas tree – two were green and gold, two were red and gold, two were green and red, and two were gold and white.

"So, is that a late lunch, or an early dinner?" Dalapathi asked his children with a smile, his greying hair sticking up slightly.

"We were thinking a late lunch." Jaisinha answered as he made sure not to burn the eggs he was frying.

"Then a later dinner than usual." Naina continued, lifting out five plates from the cupboard.

Grace, Naina's Russian Blue cat, lay comfortably across Ranita's lap. The cat purred as loud as she could as the teenager scratched Grace behind her ears and rubbed her cheeks.

"Sounds like a plan." Danielle spoke up, clasping her hands together softly.

As Naina held up a plate, Jaisinha piled it with warm food before she set it in front of their father. Ranita was served next, then Danielle and finally Naina and Jaisinha.

"What does everyone want to drink?" Naina asked, wanting to get it out of the way before she sat down to enjoy her breakfast.

"Milk." Her father, brother, niece and Sister-in-law replied together.

It didn't take long for Naina to pour out five glasses of milk and hand them out to everyone, leaving one glass behind for her.

Dalapathi chews thoughtfully on a piece of bacon for a moment before swallowing and looking towards his youngest child, "You're not on-call, are you?"

"I'm always on-call," Naina replied as she sliced her fried egg up and dipped her toast into the runny yellow yolk, she bit down and chews thoroughly before swallowing.

"When do the rest of the family arrive?"

"They should be here within the hour," her father answered, going on to mutter the last bit. "Unfortunately..."

The rest of the family, which wasn't an awful lot, were her three cousins; Ekagrah Babu and Chakori & Chandak Jaggi (who were twins).

"To Christmas Eve." Naina smiled and raised her glass to toast the beginning of the holidays.

"To Christmas Eve." Her family echoed her, raising their own glasses and clinking them against each other.

***T*O*R*C*H*W*O*O*D***

As the the clocks were ticking closer and closer to midnight, and the streets of Belfast were barren of people, an Anomaly opened in front of Belfast City Hall. Shadows scurried out of the way as the Anomaly glowed, almost pulsated, with a faded golden tinge.

All had been quiet before Anomaly had appeared, emitting a very soft static-like sound as it minutely bobbed in mid-air, only inches from the ground.

Slowly, with the sly movements of a snake, crawled out a creature from another world. A gust of wind that brought a small showering of snow followed behind it.

The creature, with stiff wiry fur that varied between pale blue and frost white, stood on two legs. The claws it had, on both it's paws and feet, were jagged and smooth – like icicles. It also had a tail, half the length of it's own body, with a tuft of blue fur at the end, much like a lion's tail. Most of it's head was covered in the fur, apart from it's jaw which was completely bare, all the way down to the bone.

"_Excellent,_" the creature purred, it's voice as smooth as frozen ice. "_Now for chaos_."

The creature began moving forward, starting over the stretch of grass before it, but as soon as it's foot sunk into the soft earth – it froze, confused as to what he'd just stepped on.

As it so happened, the Anomaly it had just stepped out of was a doorway to Sneachtadyn, the frozen planet of the Snowpeople. The creature was a subspecies of Ouflage, a race of creatures that evolved from being pray to becoming predators. The creature that had just crawled from the Anomaly was a Snouflage, they mainly lived on snowy planets.

After getting over it's shock of the unidentified green plant he'd just stepped on, the Snouflage made it's way over to the metal fence that surrounded the City Hall. It was little more than a small obstacle as the Snouflage easily climbed over and landed with a soft thud on the other side, it straightened before slinking out into the streets of Belfast.

Unseen by the Snouflage was the three figures that jumped through the Anomaly mere seconds before it closed, trapping them on Earth. The three figures, if they hadn't been moving, would probably have been mistaken for snowmen. Looking like they were entirely made of snow stood three Snowmen from the planet Sneachtadyn; one was slightly tall than the other two with a grey band around his left arm, one was wearing a thin striped scarf and a grey band around his left arm as well, and there was nothing remotely different about the last one besides the fact that the band around his left arm was blue.

"We need to find Frost." The tall snowman, Wons, worried.

"You should have been keeping a closer eye on him!" The scarfed snowman, Cickleba, hissed at Wons.

"Me! We were both on watch!" Wons growled back, worry gone and replaced by anger.

"I only went to get a snowich!" Cickleba barked in reply, subconsciously ringing the end of his scarf. "I was gone four flaks!"

"Enough! You're both at fault!" The last snowman, Aloc, snapped angrily. He was the higher ranking Snowarrior out of the three of them, and had been entrusted by the king of Sneachtadyn to recapture the Snouflage, Frost – the Snouflage had been in prison for massacring an ice village in the capital island of Sneachtadyn, Enwinworst.

Wons and Cickleba immediately shut their mouths at their leader's outburst, "Sorry..." - they both muttered.

"Come on," Aloc growled before heading towards the black painted gates surrounding City Hall. "At least it'll be colder soon." - even though it was at least -1, the Snowmen were used to living in temperatures well before -134.

* * *

**Part two of this will be up sometime next week hopefully, and then chapter 5 the week after that. Fingers crossed!**

**One of my new years resolutions was to get more followers on Twitter, so any help is great.**

**Also, anyway, if you'd like to see a picture of what I roughly though Frost looked like, go to Twitter and look for #TW5Belfast.**


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